The Fingerprints of Climate Change

John Vechey of PopCap Games recently joined The Motley Fool for a climate change summit. His first panel guests were Dr. Rachel Cleetus and Dr. Joe Casola. Rachel is a climate economist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she advocates for effective global warming policies at the state, regional, federal, and international levels. Joe is the program director for science and impacts at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, which works to assess the current state of knowledge regarding climate change and its impacts, and to promote actions that strengthen climate resilience.

Joe offers a helpful analogy to show why, although scientists will never attribute a specific weather event to climate change, we can still clearly see its "fingerprints" on everything from drought to flooding to major storms.

Joe also discusses particular risks to offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. BP will have six rigs under firm contract there by December 2014, more than any other operator. Shell will come in second with five rigs. Anadarko Petroleum is expected to have four operating rigs by then, followed by Chevron with three under firm contract and ExxonMobil ( with two. Watch the following video to learn how climate change could affect these companies.

One home-run investing opportunity is part of the solution to climate change, and it's been slipping under Wall Street's radar for months. But it won't stay hidden much longer. Forward-thinking energy players such as General Electric and Ford have already plowed sizable amounts of research capital into this little-known stock ... because they know it holds the key to the explosive profit power of the coming "no choice fuel revolution." Luckily, there's still time for you to get on board if you act quickly. All the details are inside an exclusive report from The Motley Fool. Click here for the full story!